ABSTRACT

Via a brief overview of the recent history of the ‘West Syriac’ Syriac Orthodox Church and the ‘East Syriac’ Assyrian Church of the East, this essay traces the way in which those belonging these two churches reconceptualised what is often referred to as ‘Syriac’ identity. As a reaction to denominational splintering into Catholic (Syriac Catholic, Chaldean) and Protestant branches as well as to outside political pressures such as the destabilising of the Ottoman and Persian empires and the growth of rival nationalisms, Syriac Christians developed specific forms of linguistic, ethno-religious, and national identities, predicated on pan-Syriac and/or denominational concerns.